Google eyeing video game ad acquisition

Google is rumored to be in talks to purchase a company that integrates ad …

Google is always looking for new sources of advertising revenue, and if the rumors are true, their next ad frontier may be video games. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google is in talks to acquire Adscape Media Inc., a private company that sells software that integrates ad placement in games. The deal could be finalized as early as next week.

While Google has declined to comment on the subject, it did say that the company is "always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," and that "in-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others."

The move would parallel Microsoft's $200 million purchase of the in-game advertising company Massive last year, an acquisition that some insiders say beat Google to the punch.

With both Google and Microsoft taking an interest in in-game advertising, the idea is moving further into the gaming mainstream. The chairman of Adscape, Bernard Stolar, was once an executive at Sega and also worked for Atari and Sony Computer Entertainment American (SCEA). His company is already working with major game publishers to integrate online advertising, and Google would like to have a slice of that profit pie.

Is the world ready for Google ads popping up in virtual worlds? Gamers who are concerned that the behavior of Google AdWords could pick up confusing and potentially embarrassing ads probably have nothing to fear—Google's primary interest is in becoming a premier broker of advertising content, not changing the rules of the game. It's not likely that Google will start scanning through gamers' web browsing history to find suitable ad matches, like spyware sometimes does. While nothing technically prevents in-game ads from behaving like this, the potential backlash and legal ramifications will discourage it.

When asked, most gamers say that they wouldn't mind ads in games where it makes sense, such as in racing or sports simulations that feature virtual recreations of places that feature ads in real life. If anything, it might be more jarring to see ads for "Generic Cola" instead of Coke on the racetrack, or on the boards in a hockey rink. However, seeing ads for that same beverage in a fantasy role-playing game would be unforgiveable, and one hopes that such a horror will never happen.

Still, one has to raise the question: has our society become so saturated with advertising that companies must constantly look for new places to place it? One wonders if the scenario from Futurama where companies embed ads directly into people's dreams is really so farfetched. Hockey boards didn't always have advertising, after all.